The medicine dispensing pacifier relates generally to infant care equipment and more specifically to a pacifier having a measured container thereon for supplying a certain quantity of medicines.
A unique aspect of the present invention is an integral receptacle, or reservoir, for dispensing fluid or crushed medicine through a nipple to an infant or infirm person of any age. The reservoir has a lip that connects with a nipple and it also connects to the guard of a pacifier. The nipple is in communication directly with the reservoir for dispensing medicine. In suckling the nipple, an infant draws in the medicine, at a known dosage, through an aperture in the nipple and then into the infant's mouth. The nipple is oval and shaped to fit within an infant's mouth. The present invention emulates the nipple shape an infant encounters during breast feeding while simultaneously providing medicine.
Babies, or infants, are also inclined to cry as a way of notifying parents of their needs. At times, the cry of an infant is inappropriate and inconvenient. Parents seek ways to pacify their infants and restore some tranquility to a home or other environment. Also, infants have the instinct to suckle milk from their mothers. Following the suckling instinct, infants will suckle almost anything placed into their mouths particularly items having a nipple shape. When suckling, an infant has a difficult time crying. Pacifiers having a fake nipple are accepted by infants and satisfy the infant, for a time. Also, pacifier use is associated with a significant decrease in sudden infant death syndrome.
Pacifiers generally have three parts: a nipple upon which the infant suckles, a base, or guard, upon which the nipple attaches, and a tab, or ring, extending from the base that the caregiver can grasp. Many pacifiers through the years have had solid nipples.
A pacifier of any design, whether it be the hollow type that may have air pressure provided within its interior, because it has apertures, or even the solid nipple, induces the infant to suckle. When an infant undertakes that type of activity, it creates a vacuum in the mouth due to the constant sucking pressure. This oral cavity vacuum then withdraws medicine from the medicine reservoir for ingestion by the infant. In addition, since the mouth cavity is accessible to the nasal cavity, and the ear passages, the vacuum may also draw medicine into those areas of the head. The various intra-oral passages often succumb to infection within the ear canals and ear fluid accumulation, and other maladies. Some of these maladies and discomforts respond to medicine delivered orally to an infant.